A Cheap, Easy Solution to Standing Desk Leg Fatigue

5.22.14 | 4:00pm

Sally Schneider

We know a lot of people who have created standing desks and love them (and we’ve posted over the years.) They generally feel energized because their bodies are, in effect, exercising just by standing as they work. They have, however, almost universally complained of one problem: leg fatigue. Standing for hours each day puts stress on their legs and makes them hurt, so they have to alternate their standing time with sitting.

Quite accidentally, we came across a simple, inexpensive solution to Standing Desk Leg Fatigue.

Sally Schneider

Hoping to reduce the strange vibration that randomly shakes the Laboratory (whose source we have yet to find), we researched vibration-reducing rubber to put under bed and sofa legs. After numerous conversations with Marty at Canal Rubber Supply, one of the few remaining true-blue industrial supply companies left on NYC’s Canal Street, we went there and bought several sheets of open-cell sponge rubber in 1/2-inch and 1-inch thicknesses.

Our friend Bruce McKenna helped us cut it into blocks to stack into bed legs (that story is for ANOTHER post). We used trusty Olfa utility knife. As we were talking, we wondered if the foam would cushion his legs during his long days at his standing desk. So he took a couple of pieces home to test.

Sally Schneider

A few days later, Bruce reported that he’d stood for eleven hours straight on the rubber pads at his standing desk with no leg aches at all. Eureka.

Sally Schneider

He was going to make a trip to Canal Rubber to buy a 2-foot + sheet of the stuff ample enough for him to stand on.

We find the black rubber so homely, we covered it with an area rug, which looked just fine…

3 Responses to A Cheap, Easy Solution to Standing Desk Leg Fatigue

The Standing Baba (Khareshwari) of India could use these. “They are Hindu’s who have vowed never to sit down or lie down as a self-inflicted corporal punishment for spiritual enlightenment. They work and sleep standing up. Talk about leg fatigue. The Standing Baba have a swing-like device that allows them to rest their arms during the day. During the night, a Khareshwari will support his torso on the swing as he sleeps. The swing usually has a sling beneath it. The sling can hold one of the Khareshwari’s legs at a time. It is unclear if this is intended to rest one leg or to increase the pressure on the other leg. While Khareshwaris may walk about, they usually just stand/hang in their swing.”

are you on top of the line of a subway, perhaps? we are on the 4th floor, but directly above a subway tunnel,(obvious because of how that particular line runs, but not necessarily so obvious for other subway lines) and find that there is a (very minimal, but still noticable-if-youre-paying-attention-) vibration regularly in our apartment.

Hi, no I’ve checked it out and it’s not the subway. The vibration only happens now for a few hours every morning, but it is strong enough to wake me up. (There is no special subway work being done…checked on that as well.) I haven’t yet been able to track down which of the building mechanicals might be causing it. In the meantime, I’ve rigged my bed to lessen the vibration and will report on THAT improvisation soon.

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